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As the Rich Get Poorer, Teenagers Feel the Crunch

Jodi Hamilton began her senior year of high school in Woodcliff Lake, N.J., this fall on the usual prosperous footing. Her parents were providing a weekly allowance of $100 and paying for private Pilates classes, as well as a physics tutor who reported once a week to their 4,000-square-foot home.

But in October, Jodi’s mother lost her job managing a huge dental practice in the Bronx, then landed one closer to home that requires more hours for less money. Pilates was dropped, along with takeout sushi dinners, and Jodi’s allowance, which covers lunch during the week, slipped to $60. Instead of having a tutor, Jodi has become a tutor, earning $150 a week through that and baby-sitting.

“I just thought it would be responsible to get a job and have my own money so my parents didn’t have to pay for everything,” said Jodi, who is 17. “I always like to be saving up for something that I have my eye on — a ring, a necklace, a handbag.”

It is impossible to quantify how many affluent parents have trimmed allowances in recent months — or how many of their offspring, in turn, have sought either formal employment or odd jobs. But interviews with dozens of teenagers, parents, educators and employers suggest that many youngsters from well-to-do families seem to have found a new work ethic as the economic crisis that has jeopardized their parents’ jobs and investments has also led to less spending money for Saturday night movies or binges at Abercrombie & Fitch.

After focusing on studies and résumé-polishing extracurricular activities in recent years, these teenagers are job-seeking at the worst possible time, however, with employment of 16- to 19-year-olds at its lowest level in 61 years as out-of-work adults compete for low-paying positions.

“We have the Mall at Short Hills a stone’s throw away, and there are a load of kids who applied,” said Nancy Siegel, head counselor at Millburn High School in New Jersey. “But they are not finding the market welcoming.”

At the marble-sheathed Westchester mall in White Plains, job applications have increased at stores including Origins, Tommy Hilfiger and the Gap, where job queries from teenagers are up 30 percent over last fall.

Julia Stark, a senior at Packer Collegiate Institute, a top private school in Brooklyn, said that this fall she and her friends are “all trying to work as much as we can” to pay for weekend restaurant dinners, a welcome break from a heavy course load and college applications.

In Greenwich, Conn., a Web-based program that connects high school students with nearby job opportunities has attracted 100 seekers each month since September, up from 40 to 60 a month last fall.

“I didn’t want to bug my parents for extra cash over the long weekend,” said Christian Rosier, a junior, who found a job on the Greenwich Student Employment Service the week before Thanksgiving that paid $50 for a few hours of moving furniture. “I like the one-shot jobs because I can do it on a Friday afternoon and still have time to hang out with my friends on the weekend.”

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Zachary Pollack, 14, who works at the Central Animal Hospital in Scarsdale, N.Y.Credit
James Estrin/The New York Times

Teenagers from working- and middle-class families are, of course, feeling similar — if not more acute — pressure. Sumit Pal, 17, a senior at Information Technology High School in Queens, said his parents cut his $5 weekly allowance two months ago after the deli where his father works started to lose business. Sumit was interviewed two weeks ago for a job at a company that sponsors rock bands.

Teenage participation in the national labor force has fallen steadily since 1979, when 49 percent of all 16- and 17-year-olds had some kind of work; last year, the figure was 30 percent.

A recent study by the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University showed that teenage employment from 2005 to 2007 rose with household incomes that go up to $150,000 a year: 14 percent of teenagers from families earning less than $20,000 a year work, as do 26 percent of those whose families make $60,000, 32 percent of those earning $80,000 and 33 percent of those between $120,000 and $150,000.

Over $150,000, it drops to 28 percent. “Research shows that the bigger allowance you get from Mom and Dad,” explained Andrew M. Sum, director of Northeastern’s center, “the less likely you are to work.”

Since the 1990s, many affluent children seeking admission to selective colleges have been discouraged from paid work, and steered instead toward volunteer service projects. Rebuilding homes in New Orleans or teaching English in developing countries, seemingly better résumé fodder, supplanted after-school or summer jobs scooping ice cream or answering phones.

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“There’s been such a push to demonstrate to colleges that they’re involved with activities and charities that it’s almost too pedestrian to say that work is part of what I do,” said William S. Miron, the principal at Millburn High School.

Brent A. Neiser of the National Endowment for Financial Education, a group based in Colorado that offers financial literacy programs, said parents tend to “shortchange the benefits of scut work” but that even ho-hum employment can be valuable — and impress admissions officers.

“Dress codes, rules, punctuality and being teachable is enrichment in itself,” Mr. Neiser said. “You’re contributing to the economy, you’re contributing to your personal economy and you’re picking up skill sets and habits that will prepare you for your full-time employment.”

Michael Pollack, a vice president of CBS, said that he was happy to see his 14-year-old son, Zachary, get a job at a veterinary hospital in Scarsdale, N.Y., in September, because Zachary was learning some basic lessons about money.

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Since her allowance was cut to $60 a week from $100, Jodi Hamilton, 17, center, has taken up tutoring. Her pupil here is Sigourney Barman, 12.Credit
Michelle V. Agins/The New York Times

“I really want him to feel it and save it and spend it so he knows that money goes away,” Mr. Pollack said. “If he wants to treat all his friends to a movie, that’s great. But he needs to see that it bottoms out. Where else are they going to get that experience?”

Zachary, who earns $80 a weekend for 11 hours feeding and caring for animals, said that he was glad to “help my parents with our financial situation.”

“Things I need, they’ll buy,” he said, “and things I want, I’ll buy.”

Jill Tipograph, who lives in Bergen County and owns Everything Summer, a company that advises parents on camp, travel and work opportunities, said she sent her son to college in Boston this fall with a lump sum in his bank account that was supposed to last the semester. “But he went through the money like water,” she said.

So Ms. Tipograph and her husband decided to deposit a set amount once a week, and told their son to use the prepaid meal plan more often. “We also said that if you feel you can’t live on the allowance we’re giving you, then please look for a part-time job,” she added.

He seems to be getting the message, choosing a 10-hour bus ride over a train or plane for a recent visit to a friend in Washington.

Kat Rosier, a single mother of boys ages 12 and 17 in Greenwich, has resisted the idea of a job for her older son, Christian, who plays hockey and rows on the crew team, even as her interior design business has suffered.

“Here’s my dilemma,” she explained. “His time is so limited, and I would hate for his grades to fall this year so he could make $100 a week and then for him to not get into as good a college as he wants.”

Still, having recently lost a job sprucing up the second home of a client who works in finance, Ms. Rosier said her family might need to adjust some habits. “The other night Christian had eight friends over and I spent $110 on pizza,” she said. “I don’t mind doing that, but he’s got to know that the pizza budget is not $500 a month.”

Christian said he was otherwise cutting back: “If I’m hungry, I won’t drive to McDonald’s. I’ll just eat something at home instead of spending $10 on lunch.”

Jodi Hamilton’s mother, Jill, said she had been impressed by her daughter’s determination to earn, noting that “she sent out a massive e-mail for baby-sitting and tutoring, and she got so many offers there aren’t enough hours in the week.”